Railroad Model Photography 101
by Keith Bobo

Parts you need to build a light tent:

The light tent can be made to suit your needs to photograph the size of the model you have.  For this demo, I used the following sizes of parts to make the light box shown at our club meeting.  When you make your light tent bigger or smaller, make two lengths the same size for the width, twn lengths the same size for the depth and four lengths the same size for the legs.

All Demo parts are standard ½" white plastic pipe and fittings available at any hardware store.

2x at 24 inches for the top width parts
2x at 16 inches for the depth parts
4x at 14 inches for the legs
4x tees
4x street elbows
4x caps for the feet
Glue, if you wish to make it permanent
White muslin cloth drape

You will need two to three lighting sources.  Anything will work as long as the bulbs are the same type for color temperature reason.  If you use very hot lamps, keep them away from cloth because a hot lamp can start a fire.

How to take a good picture:
     1. Must use a tripod!
     2. Use the slowest ISO your camera has for best images.
     3. Light meter is nice for digital, required for film.  If you don't have a light meter, adjust for correct exposure based on looking at your images on your computer.
     4. Use manual mode on your camera.  You need to use F11 or F16 to get the maximum depth of field (what is in focus).  Adjust shutter for correct exposure.
     5. Move the light around to create shadows to create depth in your image.
     6. Show One Light with out cloth.
     7. Show One Light with white cloth.
     8. Show Two lights with white cloth.
     9. Move lights around to create shadows.
   10. Have fun and experiment around.

Next Steps:
     How to make the final images show the true color of your model.  This is another clinic in itself, but you can look up Color work flow on the web to get the basics.  Everything from your camera to your computer screen and printer must be calibrated to the industry standard of sRGB light space.